From as early as Simon Brochu can remember, the simplest of tasks were troublesome, even dangerous.
At the age of two the seven-year-old's eyes started to shift. Soon, he was diagnosed with two lazy eyes and a second rare condition called strabismus that meant his eyes could move independently of each other, and in all directions.
His mother Nicole Brochu compared it to a chameleon, explaining Simon could be looking at two images at once even though the brain can only process one.
"There's crashing into walls. There's crashing into doors. There's falling down stairs. There's tripping over your own feet because you think something's there and it's not," said Nicole. "He had both conditions, which is quite rare."
It was also incredibly painful. Simon developed major migraines, nausea and dizziness. It delayed his learning. He lost weight.
"There were a couple times he had his head in my lap, squeezing his temples and begging for it to stop," she said. "It's heart-wrenching because I could not do anything."
Fast-forward five years and both eyes have been fixed and the cheerful child can play sports for the first time, mimicking his hockey heroes.
"I cried when he first walked a straight line," said Nicole of Simon's final surgery, just over a year ago. For the first time he had depth perception.
That was after two separate eye surgeries and 14 trips to Vancouver specialists. They have to go twice a year until Simon is a teenager to monitor his sight.
It could have represented a tremendous financial burden for the Prince George family, which has a really tight budget; Nicole's husband is a construction worker and she stays at home to look after the couple's three young children.
But thanks to a Hope Air, a national charity that arranges free flights for low-income families who must travel for health care, that cost has been removed - in addition to the hours and days lost in transit by bus that the family would have been forced to use.
Nicole said the difference it made was "literally everything."
"It sounds like a hallmark card but it's basically been our little miracle because it's allowed us to have something literally life altering," she said.
Their latest check-up represents only one of the 1030 flights Hope Air gave through the Prince George Airport in 2014. The charity has donated more than 88,000 flights since it started in 1986.
"So many people I've talked to don't know about it," said Nicole, noting she learned of it through a friend.
Although Simon can't play sports like football or rugby that bring high risk of head injury, he's jumping feet first into everything else.
"Now I skate very fast, faster than my little sister," said Simon, beaming.
His prognosis is good and Nicole can only hope his future check-ups come back as positive.
"That's always in the back of your mind," she said. "Now it's just a waiting game."
But Nicole said she can't let herself dwell on the chance.
"I would panic if I did. I would be the hyper mom putting my child in a bubble," she said with a laugh.
"He has to be a kid. He has to fall. He has to get bruises and scratches and bangs. He has to experience life."
